


Substitute Teacher

by zynnser



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Gen, Multiple Personalities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 18:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2860211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zynnser/pseuds/zynnser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaneki winced at the careless way the two investigators entered the room. Maybe trouncing them today would make things smoother for his other self later.</p><p>Or the one where Sasaki unleashes Kaneki’s teaching style on his unsuspecting subordinates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Substitute Teacher

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has Kaneki and Sasaki being two personalities (sort of) sharing one body, in what is probably a very inaccurate portrayal of Dissociative Identity Disorder. If this is a trigger for you, please skip over this fic.
> 
> Also, I am neither a martial artist nor knowledgeable about fighting tactics, so if some parts of this fic seem wildly inaccurate to you, you are probably right.
> 
> Beta'ed by [Kari](http://archiveofourown.org/users/neesha89/pseuds/Kari/), all remaining mistakes are my own.

Kaneki sighed and looked up from the note in his hand, turning to examine the room he’d woken up in. It was enormous, more of a cavern than a room, although the stark white of the walls and the evenly spaced pillars that were present throughout attested to its man made origins. Glancing back down at the note, Kaneki read it again.

 _Please take care of my subordinates today. They have_ _no experience fighting a skilled kagune user and no respect for authority, and I am afraid this combination will get them killed._

Straightforward enough, Kaneki supposed. After all, he was the protector, and protecting his squad amounted to basically the same thing as protecting himself. He would have done it back when he was the dominant personality. Hell, he _had_ done it when he was the dominant personality. None of those training sessions with Banjou had been for Kaneki’s benefit.

A door on the far side of the room slammed open, and Kaneki dropped the note back onto the neatly folded pile of clothing he had found it on. Pausing to take in the tidy lines and white color of the coat, he snorted. Figured that he’d be working for the CCG now, after losing to Arima. But all things considered, his position could have been a lot worse.

“I’m not really sure there’s anything Sas-san can teach us that we haven’t heard already,” said an irritated voice, “but Akira said we had to be here or she’d take our quinques.”

“And I told you that we can do just fine on our own without them,” said a second voice, less irate than the first but still brimming with tension.

“But Sas-san doesn’t like it when we use those,” the first voice whined.

“And how much longer do you plan on listening to him?” the second countered, losing some of the tension to a bored tone that said this was an old argument.

Kaneki winced, desperately hoping these were not the subordinates his other self had referred to in the note.  _No respect for authority_ , his inner voice mocked, and Kaneki shut it down ruthlessly. These two must be in this room by coincidence. This isolated, nearly empty room that would make a perfect training ground for ghouls.

If only his life worked that way.

Walking towards the voices, Kaneki took stock of himself. No external weapons, although it wasn’t as if he needed them. His clothing felt familiar; a decent approximation of the black suit he had worn into battles during his time searching for Dr. Kanou. Certainly close enough that it wouldn’t hamper his kagune or the speed and acrobatics he relied on to use it. No mask though, which was a pity but would probably serve him better if the two subordinates knew his face. Maybe trouncing them today would make things easier for his other self later.

Kaneki spotted the two men who had entered earlier, one dressed in the white CCG coat like the one folded by his note and the other wearing what appeared to be a jumpsuit. He ducked behind one of the pillars and started following them as they made their way to the back of the room.

“I’m just sayin’ that we’re more effective with the quinques!” the one on the left argued.

“Because that’s the only thing we get to train with consistently,” the other man replied contemptuously.

“But what’s the point of  _having_ the abilities of ghouls if we aren’t allowed to  _use_ them? Did you ever think of that, Urie?” the first man said, voice twisting up as if he were making a face. “If they weren’t gonna let us do anything why bother having the program in the first place?”

“Shirazu,” Urie replied, voice dripping with disdain. “Clearly you haven’t thought this through. Even if the higher ups never allowed us to use our kagune, the only way an idiot like you would survive is if you were essentially immortal.”

Silently moving closer, Kaneki watched the exchange in horrified fascination. These were clearly the subordinates he was supposed to be teaching, but how was he supposed to accomplish anything with people so wet behind the ears they didn’t know to keep their guard up when they were  _told_ they were walking into a training exercise?

“Oi, Urie, that’s mean,” Shirazu said indignantly, head snapping to the side to glare at his companion. “I haven’t been hospitalized once since the surgery.”

"And why do you think that is?” Urie asked, his voice mockingly patient.

Using their obvious irritation with each other as a cover, Kaneki rushed forward and laid his hands flat against their backs, right next the spine where it would be all too easy to punch through muscle and bone to rip out their hearts, if it had been a real fight.

“And you’re dead,” Kaneki said in a monotone, enjoying the way both men instantly froze under his touch.

Kaneki felt Shirazu’s chest vibrate before he heard the words, “But Sas-san-”

“I’m not ‘Sas-san,’” Kaneki corrected coldly. “Don’t expect me to cut you any slack because you’re my team.” He removed his hands, stepping back to watch as they turned around, eyeing him warily. Good.

“Your goal today will be to land a blow in a vital area. If the way you approached me just now is any indication of your abilities, you’re going to want to go all out from the start.”

Shirazu’s eyes flickered between Kaneki and Urie uncertainly. “But we’re not supposed ta use-”

“I can tell that you’re not entirely human, but my nose isn’t sensitive enough to know exactly what you are,” Kaneki interrupted. “Use that to your advantage when you  _go all out_ , inspector.”

Shirazu met his eyes defiantly for a few seconds before dropping his gaze submissively to the floor. Urie tilted his head slightly and gave Kaneki a thoughtful stare. “You really aren’t First Rank Sasaki, are you?”

Kaneki nodded at him in acknowledgment of the intelligent question. “I am, but I’m not.”

“Well that’s informative,” grumbled Shirazu, gaze still fixed on the floor. “Are you or aren’t you?”

“What’s important,” Kaneki said, his voice taking on an edge to let them know this was the last of their reprieve, “is that I will be training you today. And I will not be going easy on you.”

“Of course,” Urie replied, shifting on his feet so that he would be ready to move at a moment’s notice. “Just don’t expect us to go easy on you either.”

“Yeah!” Shirazu piped up, belatedly copying Urie’s motions and arranging himself into a fighting stance.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Kaneki says, taking a step back. Keeping in mind that his specialty was mid to close range combat, Kaneki figured that he would still have the advantage if he kept his distance. His two underlings didn’t seem to be very aware of their surroundings, and although that might change during battle, Kaneki would be a fool if he didn’t at least try to exploit it. Besides, two against one was never favorable odds no matter how much greater his fighting abilities might be. Assuming, of course, that Urie and Shirazu saw this as two against one and not every man for himself.

Still backing up, Kaneki stepped into the shadows behind a pillar, well aware that there were two pairs of eyes focused on tracking him. It wasn’t like he had much of an advantage with the layout of the room, not with his pure black of his outfit contrasting against the bright white of the walls, but he liked to think of it as a challenge rather than a disadvantage.

One set of footsteps moved forward. “Oi, don’t go thinking you can hide from-” Shirazu’s voice was muffled and then abruptly cut off. Kaneki speculated that Urie had probably realized their best course of action would be to keep quiet and play along with the stealth game. Or at least not give away their secrets, since he seemed to have figured out that Kaneki didn’t know exactly what they were.

Well, he did know they smelled a little to the left of human. And if his other self had been put in charge of them within the CCG, Kaneki had a pretty good guess as to what they were.

The silence stretched after Shirazu’s last outburst, and Kaneki strained his ears to listen for approaching footsteps.

He heard nothing.

Sprinting right, Kaneki ducked and dove for the next pillar over, using his momentum to swing himself behind the concrete as the column he had just been behind collapsed under a coordinated attack from two quinques.

Bikaku quinques, to be precise. Good for beginners due to ease of use, his mind supplied, best at mid range combat and more durable than rinkaku kagunes. It would be best if he could avoid being hit by an attack, which was fine by him; his plan had been to stay on the move all along.

Kaneki took off again in the direction Urie and Shirazu came from, using the noise of the collapsing column to mask the sound of his footsteps.

“Fuck, he got away!” Shirazu swore as the last of the dust cleared, revealing a pile of rubble and no trace of Kaneki.

Watching carefully from behind their position, Kaneki saw Urie grit his teeth as he muttered quietly, “Hand signals, Shirazu. He can hear us.”

Kaneki couldn’t see Shirazu’s face, but the eye roll was obvious anyway, as was the sloppy salute he sent Urie’s way before they split up, Shirzau running left and Urie running right.

Urie clearly had a better handle on the situation, so Kaneki decided to follow him, staying just out of sight as he darted from pillar to pillar. As Urie approached the opposite wall of the room, Kaneki held back to make sure Shirazu hadn’t doubled around to track him. Not sensing a follower, Kaneki left the cover of the columns to launch an attack on Urie.

Diving down, Kaneki set his sights for Urie’s legs. Going for the low shot was often the best course of action early in a fight, as it left the most options for escape if the attack became compromised and it had the additional benefit of leaving the opponent momentarily defenseless as they regained their balance if the strike was a success.

Fortunately for Urie, being in a fight seemed to enhance his reflexes, because he twisted around and jumped in time to avoid being hit by Kaneki’s attack. Unfortunately for him, Kaneki had more experience with fighting and was able to get his feet under him first, pivoting and catching Urie by the ankle before he had time to get away.

Kaneki yanked down, pulling Urie back to the ground and moving in under his hastily erected guard. Reaching for his throat, Kaneki found his path blocked by something new.  _Kagune_ , his mind supplied.

Disentangling himself, Kaneki jumps back, using the distance to observe the new development. Urie held his quinque somewhat awkwardly in his left hand, his right surrounded with the red and blue bulk of a koukaku kagune. From his stance, Kaneki could see that Urie didn’t have much experience using the quinque and kagune in tandem, and if he insisted on holding on to both it would become an easily exploitable weakness.

Urie dissolved his kagune, shifting his quinque into a more familiar hold. Kaneki watched in approval, noting that Urie chose to take on a defensive stance even though his quinque type had the advantage at their current distance.

Sensing a presence behind him, Kaneki dove to the side just in time to avoid being impaled by a series of spikes. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Urie sprinted forward to where Kaneki had landed, his quinque in position to strike at Kaneki’s midsection. Caught off guard by the attack on a non-vital area, Kaneki chose to block with his arms, feeling the cracking of bones as he absorbed the shock of the blow.

“Not bad,” Kaneki said grudgingly as he regained his footing, stretching out his arms to let them reattach properly. He glanced at Shirazu, wary of taking his gaze off of Urie for too long. “You hide your whereabouts well, but the plan was too obvious and you weren’t prepared for my pursuit.”

“And now you’ve seen our kagune but we haven’t seen yours,” Urie said, completing the unspoken portion of Kaneki’s analysis. “Of course.”

“Hmm, yes,” Kaneki agreed, “But you do seem to work well together, and two against one is always better odds.”

Kaneki heard a snort from Shirazu’s direction as if he wanted to disagree, but Urie gave him a glare and he quieted. Grinning to himself, Kaneki wondered what it was like to work in a group with Urie. He imagined it was probably irritating but rewarding; being in groups with controlling assholes usually was.

He should know; he’d led a group like that.

And apparently he was supposed to be leading this one too.

“My turn then,” Kaneki said, whirling away from Urie and lunging towards Shirazu. The surprised expression on Shirazu’s face when Kaneki got up close and the hastily erected block with his kagune told Kaneki he’d made the right choice; Urie might be the brains of this fighting duo, but he also had a solid defense and offense. Kaneki’s healing might mean that any long distance injuries Shirazu inflicted would be superficial, but that sort of distraction could be fatal if it came at the wrong time.

Letting out four of his kagune’s arms, Kaneki used it to flick aside the sloppy defense Shirazu’s ukaku offered. “Got you,” Kaneki said, pinning Shirazu to the ground and wrapping his hands around his neck. “Ghouls like us can’t survive decapitation.”

Hearing rustling behind him Kaneki released Shirazu, giving him a punch to the solar plexus for good measure before vaulting over his prone form. Landing lightly, Kaneki spun to face the two investigators, devising plans to prevent them from flanking him again now that he knew what their abilities were.

“Rinkaku?” Shirazu said from his sprawled out vantage point on the floor, his mouth gaping comically in his upside down position. “Oi! That’s not fair! We can’t land a fatal blow on you like that unless we land it more than once.”

“This is supposed to be  _training,_ ” Kaneki reminded, frowning as he emphasized the last word.

“Right,” Shirazu said, replying just a little too fast for Kaneki’s comfort. Maybe the mix of familiar leader and unfamiliar ghoul wasn’t the best combination for these two. Then again, the point was to make them fight no holds barred, and now that he had shown his kagune Kaneki had no reason to exercise restraint either.

Taking advantage of Kaneki’s distraction, Urie sprinted forward, striking hard with his quinque against Kaneki’s kagune before spinning to strike again with his own kagune.

“So you do know how to use both of them,” Kaneki said, watching the muscle knit back together on his arm where Urie had slipped under his guard. “It would have been better if you’d shown that from the start.”

Prying Urie’s guard open with his kagune, Kaneki threw his weight forward. He successfully broke past Urie’s defenses and slammed his open palms against Urie’s chest, feeling the vibrations from the blow rippling throughout his opponent’s body.

A flash of pain in his back, and Urie slipped out of his grasp. Rotating just enough to see Shirazu’s smug grin, Kaneki pulled the ukaku barbs out of his back and took off in pursuit of Urie.

Making sure he kept track of Shirazu’s position, Kaneki bore down on Urie, catching him with two arms of his kagune and slamming him into a column. Not waiting for the dust to clear, Kaneki used his kagune to propel himself forward, gripping Urie’s hair and slamming his head into the concrete again before he could regain his bearings.

Pushing off of the shattered column, Kaneki put some distance between himself and Urie, watching to make sure he hadn’t inflicted any injuries that wouldn’t heal as he dodged and wove between the pillars.

“Oi you bastard, hold still!” Shirazu shouted from Kaneki’s left flank. Not slowing down, Kaneki swept one of his kagune arms in the direction of Shirazu’s voice, hearing a faint curse but not feeling any contact.

Zeroing in on Urie again, Kaneki approached for a direct strike on his kagune. The impact was jarring, forcing Urie back several feet as Kaneki used his momentum to vault over him again and attack from behind.

This time Urie raised his quinque to block instead of his kagune. Swearing under his breath, Kaneki altered his course, preventing his kagune them from making direct contact and allowing Urie to easily deflect the blow.

Seizing his opportunity, Urie sprang forward with a straight thrust aimed at Kaneki’s heart. Quickly dodging away, Kaneki tried to reinstate the distance between them only to have his path blocked by a shower of ukaku spikes.

Using his kagune as an extra pair of legs, Kaneki rerouted himself to swing behind a pillar, letting it block the incoming barrage.

A swing from Urie’s koukaku left a gash in the pillar by Kaneki’s head, forcing him to abandon his cover. Blocking the follow up thrust from Urie’s quinque, Kaneki sharpened his kagune into points and drove them at the kagune wrapped around Urie’s shoulder.

A cracking sound reverberated through the room, and Kaneki felt the kagune give slightly under his assault. Urie’s quinque swung up in front of him, forcing Kaneki to disengage and relieving the pressure on Urie’s kagune.

“He’s aiming to overtax our kagune,” Urie said, clutching his quinque tightly, his face pale as his kagune drew on his energy to mend itself. “But he won’t go for the quinques.”

Kaneki smiled, pleased that Urie had been able to read the flow of his attacks. “Correct.”

“Then we just have to exhaust ‘im first!” Shirazu exclaimed, his voice startling Kaneki as it came from a new direction.

“Idiot,” Urie growled, clearly upset at Shirazu having given away his position again. “He has every advantage here except the numbers.”

“Numbers?” Shirazu repeated, voice incredulous. “You’re the boss, I guess.”

Gathering his kagune’s limbs close in a defensive form, Kaneki mentally winced. Shirazu needed to be given a lecture about stealth and tactics. A lecture that emphasized not giving away code words and plans by repeating them back in front of the opponent.

Sure enough, Kaneki saw Shirazu’s barbs coming just in time to dodge before he felt his kagune take the impact of two quinque attacks.

Bracing himself against the floor, Kaneki flung his kagune outward with explosive force, sending Urie and Shirazu flying away from him. Not bothering to check on Shirazu, Kaneki followed Urie’s path, pinning him to the ground by stabbing a limb of his kagune through Urie’s right shoulder.

Taking in Urie’s lack of a kagune and the tight expression on his face, Kaneki realized he was done. “You can’t manifest it anymore,” he said, taking the flare of anger in Urie’s eyes as confirmation. “You’re done then. I’ll just take your quinque so nothing gets out of hand.”

Urie surged up against the spike pinning him down at Kaneki’s words, but couldn’t gather the strength to break the hold. Kaneki leaned down, prying the quinque out of Urie’s grip and holding it loosely in his own hands.

“Stay down,” Kaneki said, straightening up before turning and walking in the direction he had thrown Shirazu.

Shirazu appeared to be in marginally better shape than Urie, if only because he met Kaneki from a standing position rather than a prone one. Kagune nowhere to be seen, Shirazu’s stance drooped and he leaned on his quinque as if it were the only thing keeping him upright. If the wet gasps he was taking and the blood dripping down from his mouth were any indication, Kaneki would say Shirazu was definitely done.

“Punctured lung?” Kaneki guessed, not approaching in case Shirazu tried to make a last ditch effort to get in a good hit.

“Heh,” Shirazu grunted, flipping him off.

Kaneki reached out with his kagune and took hold of Shirazu’s quinque, easing it out of his hands. Shirazu sank to the floor without its support, hands grasping at his chest.

“Let me,” Kaneki said, setting the quinques out of the way and approaching cautiously. “Where is it?”

Shirazu didn’t speak, instead moving his hand to his side to indicate which rib had cracked and broken. Undoing Shirazu’s shirt, Kaneki could see the injury by the way his chest became slightly concave.

Not giving him any warning, Kaneki pushed his hand into Shirazu’s chest, fingers closing around the bone and pulling it back into place. Shirazu gave a strangled yelp at the pain, and passed out, collapsing forward onto Kaneki’s shoulder. Sighing and making sure that Shirazu’s healing abilities were starting to kick in, Kaneki picked him up and carried him over to where Urie was recovering.

“Keep an eye on him, and notify your boss if he stops healing,” Kaneki said, placing Shirazu gently onto the ground next to Urie.

“You are our boss,” Urie said, animosity ringing in his tone.

“Your other boss then,” Kaneki said, smiling slightly at the enmity on his subordinate’s face. “If I’m up for it, I might take you out for food once you’re able to stand again.”

Urie didn’t reply, and Kaneki started walking back over to the corner of the room with he had woken up in. Sitting down beside the uniform and the note, Kaneki took a pen out of the coat pocket and wrote a few more lines on the paper.

_Training exercise successful, though subordinates need more stamina. Teach Shirazu the meaning of stealth. Teach Urie to utilize the differences between his kagune and quinque._

Reading over the note and deciding it would have to be sufficient, Kaneki closed his eyes and settled back against the wall, handing over control of his body as he let himself sink back into the recesses of his mind.

 


End file.
